AKRON/FAMILY | Review

Mar 14, 2005

4/5
Akron/Family are a four-piece, the singer sings like an angel, and they waltz through country songs that leaving you marvelling at their beauty.
These arenÂ¹t normal folk songs though. These folk songs are meshed with electronic beeps, clatters and whirls. Part Grateful Dead in their more pastoral hymnals and part Silver Apples in their non-stop aluminium-noise assault, it makes for deeply textured songs that always look upwards, aspiring to the skies.
Sharing a use of sampled mutters and sighs-made-beats as utilised by fellow folk eccentrics Hood, an autumnal air haunts the record. Å’Running, ReturningÂ¹ is the Smashing Pumpkins playing bluegrass, explosive power is contained in tight banjo lines and train-track drums. Radiohead couldnÂ¹t even dream of touching the sincerity of the pleas on display here. Å’ShoesÂ¹ is hope given music Â­ aspirations of the impossible that somehow feel attainable - a soft crescendo grows in volume and culminates in a wall of glorious country harmonies.
An album of unmatched beauty.